Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice (CVHHH) has announced the appointment of Derek Kouwenhoven as Director of Clinical Services.
Kouwenhoven, a Registered Nurse, brings almost 20 years of experience working in emergency medicine and as a clinical manager in a hospital setting. He comes to CVHHH after 15 years at Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC). The agency’s former Director of Clinical Services, Brenda Smith, retired in June.
Kouwenhoven worked his way up through CVMC’s Emergency Department. He started there as a staff nurse in the ER. He expanded his role, working as an educator in the ER, then as an ER manager. He was promoted to oversee the ICU and ER departments in a newly created position as the hospital’s Director of Critical Care Services, where he worked with the clinical teams on flow of patients from the emergency department to the ICU and facilitated the implementation of the ICU electronic flow sheet. Most recently, Kouwenhoven served as Director of the Emergency Department at CVMC where he was responsible for managing day-to-day operations.
“I am drawn to the focus of home health and the technologies that will follow this focus,” says Kouwenhoven. “I see the health care environment changing to more of a preventative model that strives to keep people in their homes, and to reduce ER and hospital visits. I am interested in supporting the initiative of home health and am eager to focus on a different aspect of health care.”
”We are happy to have Derek join our Senior Management team,” says CVHHH CEO Sandy Rousse, CPA. “Derek’s knowledge and experience bring a perspective to our work that enhances our organization’s ability to provide services and innovative solutions to our community and to work with our partners to meet the demands of health reform in Vermont. In addition, Derek’s strong clinical skills will support our clinicians in continuing to provide high-quality care to central Vermonters.”
Before joining CVMC, Kouwenhoven worked as a paramedic in Pembroke, New Hampshire for 6 years.
Kouwenhoven earned his Associate in Science in Paramedic Emergency Medicine from the New Hampshire Technical Institute, his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Vermont and his Master’s Degree in Nursing, with a concentration in Education, from Walden University. Kouwenhoven lives in Bristol with his wife and three children.